Washington Notebook: Port security grants and export enforcement

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

DHS awards $93 million for port security. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Friday announced the allocation of $93.2 million in annual port security grants to protect against, mitigate and respond to terrorist attacks.
The port grants represent a small portion of $1.5 billion in preparedness grants awarded to states, cities, and towns by DHS's Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Port authorities, facility operators and state and local government agencies are eligible for the port security grants, which can be used for risk management programs, domain awareness, training, detection technologies, physical barriers, security cards for transport workers and other protective investments.
The largest allocation, $7.6 million, went to the San Francisco Fire Department. The New York City Police Department received $6.5 million and Harris County, representing the Houston-Galveston port area, received $3.5 million.
The Long Beach Harbor Department is the recipient of $2.8 million, while the Port of Los Angeles received $1.5 million.
The eight highest risk port regions, such as New York-New Jersey, Long Beach-Los Angeles and the Delaware Bay, were eligible to compete for $53 million, while smaller port regions split the remainder of the funding.
The fiscal year 2013 DHS appropriation bill consolidated the eligible port groups from four to two, which DHS said opened up competition and allows it to fund the most effective programs.
The Port Security Grant Program has shriveled in recent years. Congress appropriated $97.5 million for port security grants in fiscal year 2012, down from $235 million in the previous round and $288 million in 2011. Five years ago almost $400 million was available for port security grants.
Congress two years ago also consolidated separate grant programs under a single management, putting port security in competition with six other grant categories, including transit security, emergency management, and state homeland security.
The Port Security Grant Program's funding table can be found here.

Meggitt to pay $3 million to settle export violations. The U.S. subsidiary of British manufacturer Meggitt PLC has reached a a consent agreement with the State Department to resolve alleged export control violations.
Under terms of the 30-month administrative settlement, Meggitt, a maker of high-performance components and subsystems for the defense, aerospace and energy sectors, will pay a civil penalty of $25 million, of which $22 million will be suspended if the money is applied to remedial compliance measures, the State Department said Friday. Meggitt will also hire a compliance officer to oversee the establishment of policies, procedures, audit measures, and information technology systems to prevent future illegal exports.
Meggitt voluntarily disclosed hundreds of violations of International Traffic in Arms Regulations beginning in the mid-1990s, largely involving the unauthorized export of defense articles, including technical data, unauthorized provisions of defense services, violations of license authorizations and failure to maintain records involving ITAR-controlled transactions.
Many of the violations were uncovered by Meggitt following acquisitions of other companies. The State Department said Meggitt's cooperation and self-disclosures led to the settlement instead of debarring the company from conducting export transactions.
Earlier this month, New York-based Aeroflex settled charges of export violations involving sensitive defense-related technologies. It has to pay a $4 million and put resources toward building a strong compliance program.The Meggitt consent agreement can be found here. - Eric Kulisch